An Impossible Secret
by J.Vanilla
Summary: Mollie Charles is lost and confused her first day at Kadic Academy. As she overhears some strange conversations, her growing curiosity leads her to find an insane and impossible war, and a confusing secret she is forced to keep.
1. Being the New Girl

Note From ~*~lyokoluver94~*~: In this fanfic, Mollie basically takes the place of William. I'm not saying anything about if she gets captured by XANA or anything; that'll just have to stay a mystery for now. This fanfic takes place at the end of Season 2 and before the events of Season 3, around the time of Lyoko Minus One.

Copyright: All Code Lyoko characters and places- Moonscoop and the creators

Mollie Anne Charles- Me: ~*~lyokoluver94~*~

* * *

_"Miss Charles? Miss Charles!"_

"_Yes, ma'am?"_

"_Miss Charles, stop eating that banana and come to the board to do the problem!"_

"_But ma'am, I don't know the Theory of Relativity. . ."_

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Mollie woke up with a start. Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the light now pouring in from her dorm window.

_What a strange dream,_ she thought. She frowned at this. Mollie knew she only had weird dreams like that when she was stressed out or nervous; when there were a lot of things on her mind. Starting a new school was most definitely stressful.

She sat up and blinked a few more times, glancing at the clock on her desk as she did so. It flashed _7:15 am_ in bright red.

_Shoot! I'm going to be late, _Mollie thought as she jumped to her feet. She almost tripped as soon as she did this; the dorm bed was closer to the ground than she was used to.

Mollie hurriedly yanked open her closet door and shuffled through her clothing. Finding something suitable, she pulled out an ankle-length light and dark periwinkle skirt and a long-sleeved dark blue top. She quickly threw her night clothes off and changed. Mollie knew she should be taking more time to get her things ready, but she was frustrated she had overslept.

She walked to the writing desk placed underneath the window in search of her hairbrush and nearly tripped again, catching herself on her desk chair. Mollie glanced down and saw her light tan boots lying on the floor. Reminding herself not to leave those there again, she hopped on one foot as she slipped her right boot on, switched feet, and took care of the left.

Straightening up, Mollie grabbed her brush from the desk and swiped it through her hair. She threw her brush down on her bed and grabbed her notebooks from the corner of the desk.

"Oh, no. . . Where is it? Where is it?" Mollie muttered to herself. She sifted through the piles of papers already spilled out on her desk: notes and reminders to herself, some pictures from home, a map of the school and all its buildings, and a journal she had told herself she would keep up with here, but so far, there was nothing to report. She didn't even want to think about what her desk would look like with a day's worth of homework spread out on it.

Finally, she came across the piece of paper she was looking for. It was regular sized, with her name, the school's name, the principal's name, and all of her classes and teachers printed neatly in little boxes and rows. It was the one small form of structure Mollie had since she'd arrived some days before.

"Ah ha! Found you," she said. Mollie, after finally getting all herself situated, crossed the small room and headed for the door.

On her way out, she passed a small mirror she had hung up on the wall and sighed a little. No matter how much she brushed her long brown hair, it always seemed to frizz up again. Mollie shrugged it off and opened the door.

Had Mollie not looked down at the schedule in her hand as she exited her room, she would've seen another student closing the door behind her and turn to make her way down the hall. Alas, Mollie didn't, and ran right into her.

"Ow!" Mollie exclaimed. She almost dropped her books as she regained her balance, but she kept a grip on them. The girl she'd bumped let out a small gasp of surprise, then quickly apologized.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the girl said. "I didn't see you there."

"I'm sorry," said Mollie. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"That's all right, neither was I," the girl smiled. Mollie smiled back. She assumed this girl lived in the room next to hers, since she had just come out that door.

_Well, it'd be nice to make friends with _someone_," _thought Mollie. "I'm Mollie," she said.

"Aelita," the other girl smiled.

Mollie nodded a little in response, thinking to end the conversation like that, though a bit awkwardly, and be on her way to her first class; until she realized that she actually wasn't too sure where that was. She did have a school map, but Mollie had never been good at map-reading throughout elementary school, finding it much too confusing at times. She quickly thought to ask for help from her new acquaintance.

She shifted her gaze casually down to her schedule as she asked, "Um, Aelita, do you think you could help me with something? Today is my first day of classes, and I don't know where anything is."

"Uh, sure," Aelita said brightly. "What do you need help finding?"

"Everything," Aelita laughed at this and both girls started down the hall.

"Well, what class do you have first?" Aelita asked.

"My science class is first, in the Science Building. I have Mrs. Hertz," said Mollie, reading off her schedule.

"What a coincidence, that's my first class, too," said Aelita. Mollie smiled. At least she wouldn't be completely friendless in that class.

By the time the girls had gotten downstairs to the dorm building's entrance, Aelita had told Mollie exactly how to get from the dorms to the science building. Mollie thanked Aelita and began to make her way to the building.

"I'll see you in class!" called Aelita as she walked off in the opposite direction.

A thought occurred to Aelita as she and Mollie went their separate ways. _Uh oh, _she thought._ I hope I'm not too late._ She quickened her pace towards the crossroads.

* * *

Aelita arrived at a small side cove with a few vending machines and her four friends waiting. She saw a tall, pretty girl dressed in black leaning back against a wall and looking out at nothing. A brown haired boy wearing nearly all green stood against the opposite wall with a cup of coffee in his hand, looking the other way. A short blond boy covered, quite literally, head to toe in purple was kicking the drinking machine in frustration. Lastly, with a small smile, she saw another blond, sweet boy leaning on the wall next to their friends with his eyes drooping shut, his black glasses sliding down his nose.

The older girl turned her head and saw her friend approaching.

"Hey, Aelita. Where were you? You're never late."

Hearing Aelita's name, the sleeping genius woke up and turned to look at her. "Hi Aelita," he said with a smile. "Yumi's right, you're never late. I was getting a little worried."

"Hello," Aelita said to all. "And I'm sorry I was late. I was giving a new student directions to her class, and we started talking."

"That was nice of you," said Yumi with a smile.

"Hey, Jeremie, any news about XANA?" asked the quiet boy as he sipped his drink.

"Nope, none. He's been quiet for a while now," replied Jeremie.

"Don't you think that's a little strange?" asked Aelita.

"What I think is strange is why this stupid machine gave Ulrich his drink when it won't give me mine!" yelled the boy still kicking the vending machine.

"Cool it, Odd. Here, you can have mine, I'm finished with it," said Ulrich, handing over his cup.

"Really? Thanks Ulrich, you're the- Hey!" he said, looking down into the cup. "There's nothing in here!" His friends had already started leaving for their classes and chuckled back at him. Odd tossed the cup into the garbage can nearby. "Very funny, Ulrich. You're going to get it at lunch," he called after his friends as they walked toward the buildings of Kadic.

* * *

Aelita and three boys Mollie didn't know walked into Mrs. Hertz's classroom and headed for their seats. As Aelita sat down, she turned around and saw Mollie sitting in the seat behind Jeremie. She gave Mollie a little wave and Mollie smiled back. Aelita opened her mouth to greet her new friend, but Mrs. Hertz walked into the room and told the class to settle down and be quiet. She started the class by picking up the chalk from the ledge on the board and writing a series of symbols and letters on the chalkboard. She didn't acknowledge Mollie to the class or let her students know there was another added to the bunch, but Mollie had met Mrs. Hertz the day before, so she felt introductions beyond that weren't quite necessary.

It took Mollie a little while to follow what was going on; science hadn't been her best subject in her previous years of schooling. Mrs. Hertz was going on about protons and neutrons with only half the class paying attention.

About halfway through the seemingly endless lesson, a very strange event happened. Actually, a few strange things happened almost all at once.

First, Mollie heard a muffled beeping noise. Immediately, four heads, who happened to be Aelita and the friends she was with, turned and looked at the ground. Mollie thought this was extremely odd, but then realized that the kids were looking at the beeping object: a laptop that the boy in front of her had taken out of a green backpack at his feet. The boy put the laptop on his lap to keep it hidden from Mrs. Hertz, who must not have heard the noise. He peeked at the computer's screen. The beeping sound got a little louder as he did this, but no one else had noticed it, or if they had, maybe it was so common and not unusual that they ignored it?

The boy tapped a few keys, and then put the laptop back in his bag. He then turned to look at the two boys sitting at the table to the right of Mollie and nodded at them. They nodded back, and he turned to face front. The boy raised his hand and said, "Mrs. Hertz? May I please go to the infirmary? I don't feel very well."

"Yes, Jeremie, go ahead," said the teacher, turning her head to see the boy. "Will someone please take him?"

"I will!" said three voices at once.

"No, that won't be necessary. I think Miss Stones can handle it on her own," she said to the two boys sitting next to Mollie. All four of them were standing up, looking tense. They looked at each other, then back at Mrs. Hertz. She turned around again and said, "Go ahead, Jeremie. You and Aelita can go to the infirmary. Odd and Ulrich, please sit down." She turned back to the board and resumed writing.

Jeremie looked at Aelita, then nodded at Ulrich and Odd, who nodded again in return and sat back down. Jeremie and Aelita left the room in a hurry.

_That was odd. . ._ thought Mollie, but Mrs. Hertz was still writing and talking, and Odd and Ulrich, she saw, were both looking at the board with the same slight interest as the rest of the class, and so she shook the thought from her head.

The rest of the lesson went as tedious as before. However, as soon as the bell rang 20 minutes later, Mollie looked down to gather her books, not all that eager to leave the classroom and wander around the school grounds until she found her next class, or until she found someone else as nice as Aelita who would help her.

When she looked back up from the desktop, she glanced over at the table where the other two boys had been seated; but they were already gone. Mollie quickly went outside the classroom and looked around the hallway, but the boys were nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Jeremie and Aelita ran through the park, trying as quickly as they could to get to the clearing that lied up ahead.

"Jeremie, is there an activated tower?" asked Aelita.

"Yes," answered Jeremie, struggling to keep up a steady pace. Running wasn't his best sport.

The two of them reached the small clearing and Aelita lifted the sewer top over to the side. She slid through the opening in the ground and started down the ladder. Jeremie followed, pulling out his cell phone as he stepped onto the first rung of the built-in ladder.

* * *

Yumi sat with her head in her hand, listening to her history teacher list facts about Shakespeare. She held her cell phone loosely in her other hand, a habit she had acquired ever since she first found out how frequently XANA liked to attack. She jumped a little as her phone buzzed softly, muffled by her hand cushioning the speaker. She ducked down in her seat a bit and held the phone up to her ear.

"Hello?" she whispered.

"Yumi, it's Jeremie," she heard on the other end. "XANA's launched an attack. Come to the factory."

"Ok," said Yumi, and she hung up. She tucked her phone away in her pocket and raised her hand.

"Sir!" she called out. The teacher turned around and inquired what her question was with his expression. "May I please go to the infirmary? My head hurts."

"Of course, Miss Ishiyama. Do you need someone to go with you?" he asked.

"No no, I'm fine," she said as she stood up. The class watched her leave and she tried to make her pace slow and normal. Once she was out of the room, she ran for the park.

* * *

Jeremie and Aelita raced down the sewer tunnel on their scooters, Jeremie trying to keep his balance with his cell phone cradled between his ear and shoulder. They stopped at the ladder leading up to the bridge connecting to an abandoned factory on the edge of town. Jeremie got off his scooter and put his phone away.

"Yumi's on her way," he told Aelita as she leaned her scooter up against the sewer wall.

"And what about Ulrich and Odd?" she asked.

"They'll know to come after class," he told her as they climbed up the ladder. "For now, you and Yumi will have to handle things on your own."

The two jogged to the factory entrance. They grabbed two of the ropes hanging from the ceiling and shimmied down.

Once they were in the laboratory, Jeremie sat down in the large yellow chair in front of the Supercomputer. He picked up a small black headset and placed it on his ear. Aelita stood behind him and watched as he punched a few keys on the keyboard and located the tower.

"Looks like it's in the Mountain Sector," said Aelita, leaning over Jeremie's shoulder.

"Yep," he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Head down to the scanners, Aelita. I'll send Yumi as soon as-"

Yumi's Lyoko card popped up on the screen with a speaker box. Jeremie pushed a button on the keyboard and said, "Yumi? Where are you?"

"I'm at the factory heading towards the elevator," she replied.

"Good," said Jeremie. "Go straight to the Scanner Room. Aelita-" he turned around to face the pink haired warrior, but the elevator doors were already hissing shut with her behind them as she smiled and headed for battle.

* * *

Aelita stood in front of a scanner, waiting patiently. The elevator doors opened, and Yumi stepped out.

"Hey, Aelita. Where are the boys?"

"They're slaves of Mrs. Hertz," said Aelita with a smile.

"Ok ladies," said Jeremie's voice, echoing around the small room. "Step insi- Huh? What's going on?"

* * *

Jeremie pushed his glasses farther up on his nose and looked at the screen. There was something wrong with the window that showed the activated tower—but that was just it. There was no activated tower anymore.

"What's this all about?" he asked to himself.

"Jeremie? Are you there? What's wrong?" came Aelita's voice from the Scanner Room.

"I think you guys better come up here," said Jeremie.

"Is everything ok?" asked Yumi as she and Aelita walked toward the elevator.

"I don't know. . ." Jeremie replied.

* * *

The elevator hissed open and Yumi and Aelita walked over to their friend hunched over at the Supercomputer.

"What happened?" asked Aelita, looking at the screen as numbers and letters flew by. "Was there something wrong with the Virtualization process?"

"No, it's not that," answered Jeremie. "It's the activated tower. It's not activated anymore."

"Really? Are you sure?" asked Yumi, also looking at the computer codes, but understanding none of them.

"Positive. I'm running another Super Scan to double-check, but the tower just . . . deactivated. All on its own."

"That's very strange," said Aelita.

"Do you think it's a trick?" asked Yumi, always considering the options.

"I don't see how it could be," Jeremie said, scratching his head absentmindedly.

Yumi thought for a moment or two, debating in her head. She then said, "Well then I guess we should go back to the school," she turned away from the computer screen. "Since there's no activated tower."

"You guys go ahead, I'm going to stay here and do a little research about this."

"But Jeremie, we have math next. Are you sure you want to miss that?" asked Aelita, a knowing smile in her eyes.

"Aelita, I-"

"Aelita's right, Jeremie. Come on, the Supercomputer's fine, Lyoko is fine, there's no activated tower. Maybe XANA just called off his attack. Maybe he saw a flaw in his plan." said Yumi.

"Yeah, I guess maybe you're right. . ."

"Come on," said Aelita, and pulled Jeremie by the hand over to the elevator.

"We should probably tell Odd and Ulrich there's no need to come anymore," said Yumi as she hit the elevator button to take them back up to the ground level.

Aelita nodded, took out her phone, and dialed.

* * *

Ulrich and Odd ran along the path, stepping on snapping twigs and leaves. They reached the small clearing and stopped running to catch their breath. Ulrich felt a gentle buzz in his right pocket. He pulled out his cell phone and put it up to his ear.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Ulrich, it's Aelita."

"Aelita? Why aren't you on Lyoko? Is the tower already deactivated?"

"Actually, yes," said Aelita. "But I didn't do anything. The tower deactivated by itself."

"It did? How?" asked Ulrich.

"What? What's she saying?" asked an impatient Odd.

"Ssh!" Ulrich said. "No, not you Aelita. . . Uh huh. . . And he's absolutely sure?. . . Ok. . . Right. Bye." Ulrich hung up the phone and turned to Odd.

"So? What's going on?" asked Odd.

"The tower deactivated by itself," said Ulrich as he turned around and started walking back toward the school.

"Huh?" said Odd in disbelief.

"Come on, buddy, I'll try to explain on the way."

* * *

Mollie wandered the school grounds aimlessly, looking down at the piece of paper clutched tightly in her hand.

_Ok, so if I'm coming from the Science Building, the history classroom should be over. . . there? No wait, I think that's the Administration Building. . ._

"I'm never going to find my way around here," she muttered to herself.

She walked past the school's North crossroads and saw kids relaxing and talking before their next class. She stopped and looked down at her map again. She heard multiple kids' conversations, but took interest in only the piece of paper that felt to her like a lifeboat with a gaping hole in it. However, amidst her circle-walking and confused muttering, she happened to catch some very interesting words coming from a group of five students standing only a few feet away from her.

"So the tower just deactivated on its own just like that? That's really weird."

"XANA's got to be up to something."

"My thoughts exactly."

Her curiosity suddenly becoming greater than her issue of being lost, Mollie looked up and over at the group of kids holding the conversation. She was surprised when she saw the back of a slightly familiar pink haired head. When she saw the rest of her friends, though, her mind went back to their science class not that long ago. She felt a little unsure about talking to them, but realized that Aelita was really her only option. After a little bit of contemplating, she felt brave (and desperate) enough to walk over to the group.

"Excuse me?" Mollie said, talking more to Aelita than anyone else.

Aelita turned around. "Oh, hi again," she said to Mollie and smiled. Mollie smiled back.

"Hi."

Odd looked around from behind Ulrich, stepped up to Mollie, and addressed Aelita. "Hey Aelita, you haven't introduced us to your new friend."

"Oh, that's right, I'm sorry. Everyone, this is Mollie. She moved into the room next to me, and we kind of bumped into each other this morning," she smiled again.

Aelita's friends' expressions were polite and friendly, and Mollie felt less nervous about talking to the unknown students.

The only other girl standing there gave a little wave and said, "Hi. I'm Yumi."

"I'm Jeremie."

"Ulrich."

"And I'm Odd!" said Odd, throwing his hands in the air with a big grin on his face. Mollie suppressed a giggle at that. She looked him over quickly and gave him a small and hesitant smile in return. _If _that's_ not a bold outfit. . ._ she thought.

"So, you're a new student here at Kadic?" asked the girl named Yumi.

"Yes," replied Mollie. "And I keep getting lost."

"That's all right, we'll help you out," said Aelita. "Where are you going?"

"Well, I have history next, then lunch, then gym," said Mollie, reading off her schedule.

"Well, the history room is over there," said Jeremie, pointing off in one direction. "And the cafeteria is over there." said Odd, pointing in the other direction.

"Of course Odd would be able to direct anyone to the cafeteria," said Yumi laughed. Mollie smiled and thanked them all. They said goodbye and went their separate ways.

_Aelita's friends seem really nice. _Mollie thought as she walked to her class. _I was wrong to misjudge them earlier and think something weird was going on with them._ She turned a corner and adjusted her books in her arms. _I should get to know them better. . . But that Ulrich boy. . . He seemed kind of rude. The only thing he said the whole time was his name. _She found her way to the history room and took a seat in the back. She set her things down and glanced out the window. _But he was kind of cute._


	2. Suspicious and Confused

The lunchroom was fairly crowded, but not so packed that every table was full. Mollie picked up her tray of food and looked around the room. She spotted an empty table at the far end, and made her way over. She glanced over toward the middle of the room and saw Aelita and her friends eating lunch. She stopped walking mid-stride for a second, but turned her head away and continued toward the empty table awaiting her.

_All the chairs are taken, anyway, _she thought quietly to herself.

* * *

"So Einstein, you skipping gym again today?" asked Ulrich, sitting back on his chair.

"Yes, I have to. I'm getting close to a breakthrough with the Sector Five virtualization. I don't have time for Jim's boring speeches and clumsy demonstrations today," said Jeremie with a smile.

"If only we were all so lucky," Aelita joked.

Odd, who was happily wolfing down thirds of his mashed potatoes, stopped eating suddenly and glanced up.

"Odd? What's wrong?" asked Yumi.

"Huh?" he asked, looking at her.

"What were you staring at?" she asked him, turning around to look at whatever had caught Odd's attention. She didn't see anything strange, expecting some small sign of a XANA attack. She only saw the new girl, Mollie, and a couple 7th graders sitting at separate tables, calmly eating their lunches.

"I wasn't looking at anything," Odd said, and Yumi turned back around. "I just remembered we have that big history test tomorrow." He looked back down at his food and kept eating.

Yumi turned back to Jeremie and asked about the virtualization program, while Ulrich, knowing his best friend too well, looked back past Yumi's shoulder to where Odd had been staring and also saw nothing suspicious, just some younger kids and the new girl. He glanced back at his friend and saw him nearly shove a whole banana into his mouth, and wipe it on his sleeve.

Totally normal.

Ulrich mentally shrugged and silenced the question that had entered his head.

* * *

"Now then, listen up! You kids may not think running is a real sport, but it is! Why, if you don't know the proper breathing techniques and have enough stamina, you'll pass out right on the field! You wouldn't believe how many professional athletes haven't been taught how to run a simple sprint. I had to demonstrate for the World Cup teams nearly six times-"

"You've worked with the World Cup teams, Jim?" asked Odd with an eyebrow raised.

"Uh, um, well..." Jim spluttered. "I'd rather not talk about it." He turned his back sharply and began pacing slowly in front of his students seated on the field. "Now! The first thing you need to know about sprinting…"

Mollie plucked another blade of grass and slowly began peeling it apart. She let the slivers fall the short distance to the ground and collect on the small pile that had formed. She heard the tap-tap-tapping of someone behind her sneakily trying to text on their phone. She scanned her head around to the right and noticed (well, re-noticed) Aelita's friend Ulrich sitting about two feet away from her, whispering quietly to the boy Odd. He had dark eyes, Mollie noticed; dark, severe, but gentle eyes. Mollie quickly looked up at Jim and tried to get her attention back on his lecture.

"You never want to exert all of your energy on the first few steps. If anything, save it for the last seconds of…"

_Is he _still _going on about this? This is more of a study class than a gym class._

"Now, I'll be picking four of you at a time to demonstrate to me how well you've grasped the concept of a good sprint…"

"Oh, great, just what I needed on my first day: public humiliation," Mollie muttered under her breath. She mentally cringed – running was definitely not her best sport. Ulrich cocked his head slightly to the left and moved his eyes over to Mollie. She saw this out of the corner of her eye, but kept her focus forward, thankful that a blush didn't creep onto her cheeks. Ulrich had looked back to his friends within a second anyway.

Jim called on four boys who hadn't been paying the slightest bit attention from the back of the small bundle of students to be the first runners. They walked the short distance over to the track with Jim following behind. They got in their lanes and prepared for Jim to start them.

Mollie didn't feel, but heard a soft buzzing on the ground near her. She looked with her eyes as Ulrich held his phone in his hand and pressed a button. He read his text quickly and showed it to Odd and Aelita. They both gave him a little nod and raised their hands.

"Jim?" they all called out.

Jim, who had his arm raised above his head ready to swipe down as a mock-flag, flinched sharply and turned to them.

"What?" he sounded slightly annoyed.

"Can we go to the bathroom?" the three of them asked.

"Do you really think that I'm going to let the three of you, of all people, to-"

"Jim, my leg is cramping!" one of the boys complained from his crouched starting position. Jim sighed in frustration and called back, "Fine, fine! Just hurry up!" He turned back the sprinters and began the countdown.

Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita got to their feet and hurried around the sitting group of students, none of whom looked up as they left. They crossed quickly back to the buildings, but, Mollie noticed, headed for the park area instead of around the corner to the nearest bathrooms.

_Leaving_ _again, huh?_ Mollie thought. She shook her head and distantly stared out past the boys running around the track.

* * *

*A few minutes earlier*

Jeremie, leaning forward in his lab chair, scanned his eyes across the pages of data. The Sector 5 virtualization was coming along, but there were still big gaps in his program. He was sifting through some recent information Aelita had been able to access from Sector 5 when another screen popped up and started beeping.

"Oh, great, just what we needed," Jeremie groaned. He typed on his keyboard and localized the tower that XANA had activated. He pulled out his cell phone and quickly sent a text to Yumi and to Ulrich.

"Well, I guess all I can do now is wait," he sighed as he pulled his virtualization program back up.

Jeremie had been working on his program for all of a minute, mentally tuning out the annoying alert sound, when the beeping from the computer monitor suddenly stopped altogether. He straightened up with a puzzled look on his face. The window that had shown the activated tower had disappeared, leaving only the virtualization codes scrolling along before him. Jeremie scratched his head and tried to bring the window back up, but it was gone.

"What the…" he ran the activated tower search again, but it brought up no results.

"Again?" Jeremie sat back in his chair, frustrated. He sat for another minute and re-launched the scan, but there was still no activated tower in Lyoko.

Jeremie sighed in confusion. "What on earth is XANA up to?" he muttered, bringing up Yumi's number on the screen and choosing 'dial'.

"Yumi?" Jeremie said when he heard her slightly out-of-breath 'Hello?'. "False alarm; XANA's called of his attack," Jeremie said into the small microphone. He heard her breathing hard as she ran, but stopped short and sighed.

"Another one? Great, I thought I was going to be able to skip that math test."

"Hopefully the next one," said Jeremie with a slight grin. Yumi hung up and her picture disappeared from the monitor. Jeremie then pulled up Ulrich's cell.

* * *

Odd lifted the sewer lid off of the opening as Ulrich pulled his vibrating phone out of his pocket.

"Yeah, Jeremie?" he said. Odd and Aelita looked up at Ulrich's phone as if Jeremie were talking to all of them.

"Again? … Are you sure?" Ulrich heard a small sound of exasperation in Jeremie's reply; it sounded as if he'd had to explain this many times before this call. "Yeah, ok. Bye." Ulrich hung up the phone and looked at Odd and Aelita's wondering expressions. He shrugged. "Another false alarm." He turned on his heel and headed back towards campus. Aelita's eyebrows came together in confusion as Odd set the sewer lid back down in its place.

"You mean another tower has deactivated itself?" Aelita asked as she followed Ulrich through the woods.

"Seems like it. Not sure why, though."

"This is getting a little strange," Aelita said slowly. "I think I'm going to go the Factory and see if I can help Jeremie."

"Hey wait, Aelita. If we go back to gym with one less person, I think even Jim might get a little bit suspicious," said Odd.

"Couldn't you make something up?" she asked tentatively.

"What do you want us to say – that you got stuck in a toilet?" Ulrich asked.

Aelita smiled and sighed. "I guess not." The three continued through the trees back to class.

* * *

_I know something's up. They couldn't all have had to go to the bathroom all at once. Especially after reading that text message…_ Mollie wondered suspiciously as her three classmates returned to their spots on the ground. They didn't look like they'd done anything wrong… but there was something inside Mollie that was telling her they had gone somewhere else. _A clubhouse? Maybe… but why in the middle of class? That doesn't make any sense…_

"Young lady, stop your daydreaming and get yourself over on the track!" Mollie started and looked up in front of her at her gym teacher. He was looking at her and pointing to the starting point where Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd were also getting in place for a sprint.

_Oh no, not them! I can't race Ulri- ...Aelita and her friends._ Mollie felt nervous getting up and mentally scolded herself for not volunteering to go when he- ...when _they_ hadn't been there to see.

Aelita, Odd and Ulrich were in their positions waiting to start when she got to them. As she passed Aelita and Odd, they both looked up and gave her small smiles, Odd's being slightly bigger. She tentatively returned their grins and passed by Ulrich, whose face was smooth and inattentive. Her hands got a little clammy and she hastily wiped them on her shorts before kneeling down next to him. She sneaked a glance over at him and saw that his face had not changed. She noticed he looked…determined? Suddenly, Jim's voice was loud by her ear.

"Three! Two! One!" he made a gunshot noise and Mollie assumed he had lowered his thumb to beside his forefinger to act as a pistol, but she was too preoccupied watching her feet as she ran down the track to look back. She glanced up and saw that Ulrich was already a mile ahead of her, with Odd and Aelita closely following.

_Where'd they all learn to run that fast?_ She crazily wondered as she begged her feet to move faster. It was suddenly all over, though, and she had scrambled across the finish line just barely in last place.

"Well, that wasn't too bad!" Jim called to them from about halfway from where they'd started. "I'm glad some of you actually know what you're doing enough to not look too foolish out here." Mollie knew he was addressing the whole class, but a small blush of embarrassment crept upon her cheeks as the four of them walked back to their classmates. Ulrich, she noticed, still looked calm, cool, and collected… and still stone-faced. She internally groaned. _It's going to be a long year._


	3. The Attacks Begin

"Diary of Jeremie Belpois, March 8. I haven't gotten very far with finding a way to virtualize the guys into Sector 5; I keep coming up to dead ends. XANA's been quiet for over a week now. It's unusual, but it's given me time to work. The last time XANA launched an attack, all he did was activate a tower and then deactivate it. That's happened twice, and since then, nothing. Other than that, no new updates. Jeremie Belpois, signing off."

Jeremie tapped a button on the keyboard and the video window disappeared. He leaned back in the large, yellow chair he so frequently occupied and let his eyes rest for a moment or two.

A high-pitched beeping sounded and made Jeremie sit straight up, his eyes popping to life. An automatic activated tower scan then ensued and came up with a blinking red winner. Jeremie's hand instinctively reached for the cell phone in his pocket, but stopped. He sat tensely in the chair (an automatic reaction after dealing with XANA for so long), waiting for the screen to change. He patiently sat for two whole minutes, and when he was satisfied that the activated tower was there to stay (until the faithful warriors arrived, that is), he pulled out his phone and pressed the speed dial programmed for Aelita. There were just two brief rings before he heard her voice from the other end.

Jeremie answered, "Aelita, we may have an emergency. There's an activated tower."

"What? Are you sure it's real this time?" Aelita said above the ruckus of the cafeteria.

"Oh, it's real, all right," said Jeremie, already bringing the familiar virtualization program to the screen. "XANA's finally woken up."

* * *

The sounds of scraping chairs and sliding trays filled the lunchroom as Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita had the unfortunate pleasure of watching Odd scoop every last bit of his second helpings noisily into his mouth.

"Could you be any louder, Odd? I don't think everyone can hear you," said Ulrich, sitting back casually in his seat.

Odd merely stuck out his tongue in response and continued eating. Aelita gave a soft chuckle and shook her head. "Really, Odd, I don't think there's any more food left."

Odd looked at his tray for a moment before turning to Yumi, whose almost empty tray was still on the table in front of her.

"Uhh, Yumi? Are you…?"

Yumi gave a sigh, though Odd knew she was not really upset. She slid her tray to her left so it sat beside Odd's, and he happily picked up the roll she had not eaten.

"Oh, Ulrich, dear!"

"Oh, great. Are you kidding me?" Ulrich rested his head in his hands and waited for the annoyingly familiar person to catch up with her equally aggravating voice.

Sissi Delmas reached the end of their table, where Ulrich was fortunately sitting near the opposite side. She carried her lunch tray in her hands, which was empty except for a pool of leftover gravy; on her face was a rare, wide smile.

"What do you want, Sissi?" Ulrich asked as her two goons, Nicolas and Hervé, arrived behind her, standing as close as she'd allow without turning around and smacking them.

"And whatever it is, please make it quick so you can leave us alone," said Yumi. She wore an aggravated frown and deliberately spoke to the table as she addressed Sissi.

"Well, _someone's_ in a sour mood," said Sissi, speaking only to Ulrich. "What's wrong, Ulrich, dear?"

"What's wrong is you won't leave me alone," Ulrich pointedly stated.

"Sissi, why don't you go look for a couple more brain cells to keep the one you have company?" Aelita chimed in, rather unexpectedly.

Sissi, slightly surprised, turned to Aelita and gave her a sneer. "Don't take your anger out on me, Miss Einstein, just because Jeremie would rather be on a date with his computer than here with all of you." Aelita simply folded her arms and repeated Odd's reply from earlier and stuck her tongue out. She even offered a small 'nnnn' sound to go with it. Everyone at the table openly grinned and chuckled. With that, Sissi gave a loud 'Humph!', turned on her heel, and marched away.

Yumi shook her head and watched Sissi's retreating back for a moment, before turning back to her friends. "Why doesn't she see what a giant pain she is?"

"Well I sure hope she realizes it soon. She drives me nuts," said Ulrich.

"I think something ought to be done about her," Odd said, with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Odd, what are you…" Ulrich said, knowing that whatever his friend was planning wouldn't have good consequences.

Odd, still holding Yumi's uneaten roll in his hand, turned around in his seat and took aim.

"Odd!" Yumi exclaimed.

"Hey, Sissi!" he called out.

She turned around and, seeing who it was, gave an annoyed and uninterested, "What?"

Odd's reply was simply, "Catch!" The biscuit was launched into the air and came down squarely in the middle of the large glob of gravy still sitting on Sissi's tray. The brown, liquidy substance splattered Sissi's forearms and the front of her pink top. She let out a screech and her tray clattered to the floor.

Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, and the rest of the lunchroom let out gasps, but ultimately couldn't hide their laughter. Odd was nearly in tears as Sissi shook with fury. "Odd, you little rat!" she yelled. Before she could do anything else, however, a voice boomed from a foot behind her.

"Hey! What's going on here?" Jim demanded, looking from the vicious and messy Sissi over to the table where Odd sat with his friends, who had managed to conceal their amusement for the time being. He took a few large steps to the table and stuck his fists on his hips.

"Hello there, Jim. How has your day been?" asked Odd cheerfully.

"Don't give me any of that, Della Robia. Now I want some answers! Who did this?" He pointed at Sissi with a meaty finger.

"It was Odd!" came Hervé's squealing voice. He stood next to Sissi, whose arms were crossed and expression was aggravated. Hervé, however, looked thoroughly pleased to come to Sissi's rescue and have the chance to complicate Odd's life, or any of his friends' lives after all the grief they've caused him, and of course, Sissi.

"Della Robia, why am I not surprised?" said Jim, stating the question more than asking it. "You're spending the rest of lunch with me. Let's go."

"B-But-" Odd started, no longer smiling.

"No 'buts'. Now get up and follow me, come on." Jim beckoned for Odd to stand up and waited with his arms folded.

Sissi, who had stuck around to see Odd get his punishment, gave her hair a small toss behind her shoulder, stuck her head up high, and hurried out the cafeteria doors. Hervé and Nicolas, looking slightly dumbfounded as usual, followed Sissi out of the lunchroom, leaving her forgotten tray on the floor.

Standing up with a frown on his face, Odd stopped in mid-chair-pushing-in when Aelita's cell phone sprang to life in her pocket. He stalled and fidgeted as much as he could as she held the phone to her ear and said, "Yes, Jeremie?"

Ulrich and Yumi were also alert, and were all listening intently, but discreetly, to Aelita's tone and reactions to piece together the parts of the conversation they could not hear.

"What? Are you sure it's real this time?"

Odd was now pretending to tie his shoe, with an impatient Jim waiting a few feet behind him.

"Della Robia, let's move!" Jim called out.

Odd had no choice but to stand up and walk behind Jim to the other end of the cafeteria. As he left, he heard Aelita saying into the phone, "Ok, we'll be right there," and promptly, "It's an activated tower," to the others still at the table. He chanced a look back at his friends and gave them a nod; they all gave a confident nod back. Odd stood for a moment behind a chair at Jim's empty table, ready to be the silent look-out.

* * *

The small, green peas and pile of potatoes on Mollie's tray sat untouched as she leisurely picked apart her bread roll. Apart from the incident she'd witnessed involving gravy and the unfortunate (and loud) principal's daughter that took place just minutes ago, things around Kadic had been noticeably quiet the past few days. She'd been doing a good job keeping up with her schoolwork, and, when she had a moment or two to breathe-right now being a prime example-her mind would wander back to that startling stony face and those sharp, quiet eyes…

Three figures were caught out of the corner of Mollie's eye and she glanced up in front of her, raising her head slightly. Aelita, Yumi, and (she felt her insides grow hot) Ulrich were hurriedly making their way to the doors that led out into the courtyard. The strange thing was that they all wore similar expressions: powerful, determined, and slightly cautious.

Noticing, however, that neither Odd nor Jeremie were with their friends, Mollie turned her head around to where they had come from, but found their table to be completely vacated. She did, however, catch a shock of blond and purple moving a bit to her right, and she swiveled the other way in her seat to see more easily.

Odd pulled a chair out in front of him and stepped to the side to sit down next to a grumpy-looking Jim. He wore a calm, confidant expression, but held the seriousness of some important job tucked into the corners of his bright eyes. He gave the door that his friends had just exited one last look, then went to sit in his chair and face front. As he brought his head back around, though, his eyes moved over the cafeteria and its chattering occupants; but his eyes met, very briefly, with one of the few silent dwellers. Mollie's face was alight with curiosity, and she had about a million paranoid questions buzzing about in her head like angry bees. Odd could obviously see that Mollie was sitting in a twisted position, not at all casual or natural; she was half facing him, half the wall. She didn't want to seem strange for this particular arrangement, but before she could do anything (in that split second this was all happening, mind you), Odd simply turned his head forward and slipped into his seat.

Slightly frustrated, Mollie also turned back around in her chair and merely stared at her food once more. She, too, gave the lunchroom doors one last look before she stood up and walked her tray coolly to the garbage cans.

* * *

_Tap-tap-tap-tap._

_Tap-tap-tap-tap._

_Tap-tap-tap-tap._

The soft sound of Jeremie's nails drumming against the arm of his chair was the only noise in the large, echoing chamber that housed Lyoko's monitor until he heard a distant rumbling coming from somewhere above his head. As the rumbling grew louder, he straightened in his seat and picked up his headset from its perch on the keyboard. The large gears on the front of the elevator creaked slightly as they turned and meshed. The doors slid open with a resounding hiss, and a soft mist crept from the opening between the floor and the door. Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi exited the elevator and made their way to the large monitor where Jeremie had begun typing away on the keyboard.

"No signs of a XANA attack, Jeremie," said Yumi as the worn metal doors behind her hissed back into place.

"Hmm. That's a little strange," Jeremie said, following Yumi with his head as she joined her friends surrounding the back of the large chair. "But where's Odd?" he asked her, looking at the three, not four, members of their little group of heroes.

"He couldn't come. Got tied up with Jim in the lunchroom," Ulrich answered instead. Jeremie swung his head around to his right to look at his friend. His expression said more, but Jeremie didn't need to hear it vocalized. He internally gave a sigh, knowing that Odd had gotten himself into some sort of mischief and now had to pay the price.

"Well then, no use just waiting around. Head for the scanners," Jeremie decided, and Yumi led the way back to the elevator.

* * *

"_Virtualization!"_

Three soft 'thuds' were heard along with the slight scratching of shoes against sand. A light dust was kicked up and gently dissolved into the virtual air of Lyoko. Ulrich stood straight and scanned his and his friends' surroundings, automatically checking for monsters or anything else that would send them off their path to wherever the activated tower lay ahead. Fortunately, he saw nothing but desert surrounding them on all sides. The clearing they were in was fairly large, and ended about 50 or so yards behind them. In front of them, the edges of the clearing dented inward slightly to form a wide, long pathway heading for an immense wall of smooth, sandy, desert. The land curved around the far away barrage, giving a way of access to the next segment of the Sector, but it was lost from their view. The clearing, the path in front of them, and the base of the tall barrier was adorned with the large, pointed gray rocks that so frequently made themselves at home throughout the virtual world.

As Aelita and Yumi got to their feet, Jeremie spoke to them from the open Lyoko sky. "The tower is due northeast, 66 degrees."

"Mind calling us a taxi?" Yumi playfully asked.

"Coming right up."

The forms of two great masses of virtual machinery solidified in front of Yumi and Ulrich. The latter immediately straddled his Overbike, his need for speed beginning to become restless at the sight of the smooth-riding vehicle.

Yumi stepped onto the waiting platform of the Overwing, which lowered toward the sandy ground with her weight and bobbed back up like a cork in water. Aelita hopped up behind her and lightly placed her hands around the other girl's waist for balance and safety. Yumi gripped the Overwing's handlebar and urged it forward, Ulrich already having revved up the Overbike and sped before them.

All was quiet for the moment, save for the humming of the vehicles, as Jeremie spoke to his friends once more. "I think I'm seeing some monsters heading your way. Be on the lookout."

"I'd say it's about time. Things have been getting boring around here lately," Ulrich said. Yumi simply shook her head, following a bit behind him as Aelita smiled.

The unpredictable layout of Lyoko turned and parted far ahead of them, and the orange-tinted void above them was as vast as the nighttime sky. And from that sky came a buzzing pack of five determined Hornets, swooping down on the trio as soon as they were in sight.

Yumi glanced back at the sound of the approaching monsters and surged forward right next to Ulrich. "Here come our guests," she said to him, pulling a compacted fan out from its place in her kimono. She glanced back at the Hornets once more to take aim before whipping the fan behind her back and up into the air. Aelita dutifully dodged Yumi's swinging arm and turned her head to follow the fan to its target. It passed the lead Hornet on its left, the monster having darted smoothly to the right to avoid the sharp blade. The fan arched back to its owner, Aelita ducking once more to avoid being hit. Hearing the blade cut through the air, Yumi stuck her hand up over her shoulder and the fan neatly fell into her grasp. She tucked it away, frowning at the failed attempt.

To their right, two Hornets who had broken away from the pack were closing in on Ulrich. He cocked his head slightly both directions, hearing one Hornet on his left and one on his right. The two flying monsters closed in simultaneously as Ulrich abruptly put the brakes on his Overbike. The Hornets passed over him and stopped, seeming confused, but Ulrich was already re-accelerating and before they could pull back, he drew his gleaming sword from its sheath and thrust it into the air, cutting clean through one of the hovering Hornets. It exploded into tiny pixels, which quickly faded from sight as its companion hurriedly left to find the others. Ulrich gave a small, satisfied grin.

The four remaining Hornets droned loudly above and just behind Aelita's head as Yumi kept a steady pace on the Overwing, dodging the monsters' frequent lasers as best she could. One lucky shot, however, sliced the tail end of the Overwing, giving it a healthy push forward. The smooth gray vehicle flickered feebly, then disappeared altogether. Both girls fell through the platform that was no longer there, letting out small shouts of surprise.

Landing on their feet, Yumi and Aelita took off running while the Hornets continued to fire after them.

"Well this is just great," said Yumi as she reached behind her back once more, this time revealing both her sharp fans.

"The tower isn't too far now," came Jeremie's voice.

Yumi whipped her arms out behind her and released her weapons with a small shriek of attack. The razors flew towards the small flock of Hornets, one missing its target, but the second hitting a monster directly in the large Eye of XANA that rested on its head. The three remaining Hornets began firing their glowing red lasers at the girls once more.

Ulrich rode up to Aelita's side and halted the bike next to her, bowing his head slightly and gripping the brim of an imaginary ten-gallon hat atop his head. He gave her a half-smile, which she returned with a happy full one. She swung a leg over the Overbike and settled behind him.

Yumi understood the silent communication between her and her fellow fighter, and she slowed her pace and turned around to face the monsters alone. Ulrich started the Overbike's engine again and sped off in the direction of the tower with Aelita, who turned her head to see the Hornets slowing to a hover above Yumi's head, still firing their lasers. Yumi brought her fans up close to her body and deflected the lasers with sharp accuracy. She whipped her arm out and released a sharp fan, getting hit in her shoulder. She gave out a small gasp, but kept defending herself with the fan in her left hand. Her trusty weapon sliced through a Hornet and returned to her. There were two left now, and on a gut impulse, Yumi turned around and began running further into the desert in the direction that Aelita and Ulrich had sped off in. The Hornets continued to chase her and fired continuous lasers, missing most of the time. _'A moving target is harder to hit'_ was Yumi's philosophy.

* * *

One of the things that Ulrich wished he could change about the world of Lyoko was the lack of senses you could experience there. Speeding through the virtual desert with Aelita clinging faithfully to his waist, he could only imagine what it might feel like to really have the harsh wind hitting his face and the sand being kicked up beneath his bike's fast wheel. On Lyoko, the senses and feelings didn't exactly disappear completely, but it was nothing compared to the real world. He supposed it's probably more convenient, but having never ridden a motorbike in the real world, he had nothing to compare it too.

He was brought out of his reverie when he heard Jeremie's voice echo above him. "Watch out Ulrich, there are two Krabs coming your way."

Ulrich looked forward and focused a little into the distance of the large plain they'd entered. Sure enough, he could see two large, claw-like figures making their way toward him and Aelita. With the Overbike's speed and the Krabs' long legs, it wasn't long before he and the monsters had closed the distance. Once they were within firing range, the Krabs tilted their massive, flat heads and began shooting their red lasers. With the adrenaline of battle flowing through Ulrich's body (something that he could definitely feel on Lyoko), he quickly made a plan of attack. He tuned his head so that Aelita was able to hear him shout, "Jump!"

Aelita did what she was told, having full trust in Ulrich's battle plans. She put her weight on the right peg of the bike she had her foot resting on, pushed up and brought her left leg above the height of the seat, and thrusted herself off the side of the vehicle. Before she clamored to the dusty ground, she tucked her head to her chest and ended up landing and rolling on her shoulder, getting upright a few moments later.

She was not hurt, of course, but was a bit startled from the jump and the impact. She remained crouched on the ground and watched as Ulrich performed a practiced and successful technique. He revved the Overbike's engine, getting as much last bit of speed as possible. He aimed directly at the Krab on the right, which was currently charging up its laser for another attack. Unaware of what was happening, the monster continued walking forward to the speeding vehicle as Ulrich very suddenly leaned violently to the side and leapt from the Overbike much like Aelita had done. The bike fell onto its side, but continued skidding forward with the momentum it'd gotten moments ago and slid right into the Krab's gangly legs. The monster toppled forward and landed upside down. The force of both the vehicle and the ground's impact caused the Krab to devirtualize into dozens of tiny pixels.

With one enemy down and now forced to fight on his feet, Ulrich unsheathed his saber from his side and brought it up to his chest to deflect a laser that had just come his way. He let out a grunt as the force pushed him back several centimeters.

The second Krab continued to fire as Aelita quickly slouched behind a large rock for cover. She knew she needed to help Ulrich while she had the element of surprise on her side. Still a bit unsure of her newly acquired power, she peeked from around the edge of the boulder and could easily see the large, red Krab. It was slowly taking steps toward Ulrich, keeping up a steady line of lasers much more damaging than the Hornets' they'd faced earlier. Aelita held out her hand in front of her, palm facing upward. She concentrated slightly on her palm, feeling a small pool of energy accumulate there. Almost instantly, a sphere of pink, pulsing light popped from her hand and rested there like a beating heart. She lifted her palm up and out toward the Krab, the ball of energy remaining in her hand. Squinting slightly, Aelita aimed carefully and concentrated once more on both the weapon in her hand and the monster ahead of her. With some force and a small noise of attack, the orb shot from Aelita's open hand and into the air at the Krab.

Unfortunately, with Aelita's lack of experience with the new ability that Jeremie had been clever enough to program, the deadly ball missed its desired target and whizzed in front of the Krab instead.

Its attention grabbed, the Krab ceased momentary fire on Ulrich and turned instead to the rock which Aelita was only half hidden by. Seeing the more desirable target, the Krab started to make its way to Aelita and shot its lasers at her rather than Ulrich. Aelita ducked back behind the temporary safety of the boulder and saw red beams fly above her head and felt them come into harsh contact with the rock pressed against her back.

Ulrich, no longer under the Krab's attack, planted his foot behind him in the sand. With his hand gripped tight around his sword's handle, he centered his energy and yelled, "Super Sprint!" Ulrich shot forward, his feet having no difficulty keeping up with his speed. Within a few seconds he was able to jump high into the air with ease and landed on top of the Krab's head. It stopped in its path, seeming confused. But before it had time to work out what was happening, Ulrich lifted his saber over his head and brought it down squarely into the Krab's large Eye of XANA with a loud shout of: "Impact!"

He leaped backwards off the monster as it exploded, and with the threat of XANA gone for the time being, Aelita came out from behind the slightly cratered rock.

Aelita gave Ulrich a smile of thanks and opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped short as she and Ulrich both received blows to their backs. They turned around to see Yumi approaching them, followed by two shooting Hornets.

"This is getting crazy!" Ulrich said to Aelita, who took a few defensive steps away from the monsters out of habit.

"Yumi!" Ulrich called to his friend. "Get Aelita to the tower!"

Yumi took advantage of a moment where neither of the Hornets were firing to launch a fan at one of them. It missed, and she retreated over to Aelita. The two girls took off running as Ulrich stood his ground in front of the monsters.

"Okay," he said, placing both of his hands on his saber's handle. "Now it's just you and me." Ulrich gave a determined smile and ran at the remaining Hornets.

* * *

As Yumi and Aelita raced to the tower, Yumi first heard and then saw still more red lasers being shot above her head and on either side of her. _How in the world did they get past Ulrich?_ she thought, but assumed XANA must have just sent for reinforcements.

"XANA's not giving up," Yumi said to Aelita as they ran, and Aelita shook her head in agreement.

One laser hit Aelita right between her shoulder blades, sending her flying forward onto the ground. Yumi stopped to help scoop her back up, just as they heard Jeremie's voice from above them.

"Don't worry, you guys, you're almost at the tower!"

Sure enough, as the two rounded a small bend in front of them, a large, looming tower with a red ring of smoke sat in the middle of a large plain about a hundred meters in front of them.

As they approached the activated tower, the girls slowed their pace and Yumi halted in front of its brown base. She gave a small jerk with her head toward the tower and said to Aelita, "Go do your thing."

Aelita smiled and nodded, then turned away from Yumi and walked right up to the tower. She took another step forward and her foot melted through the outside wall, the rest of her body following. As she disappeared from view, Yumi stood outside and patiently waited for the tower's red ring to turn white against the desert sky.

* * *

Jeremie breathed a small sigh of relief as the alert window showing XANA's activated tower quieted and then disappeared from the screen. Satisfied with how smoothly things had gone, he proceeded to rematerialize Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi. He then quickly moved on to the next item on his mental checklist, pulling up Odd's cell phone number on the Supercomputer and connecting to it.

Once the dial tone clicked off and Odd answered with a quiet, "Hello?" Jeremie asked him how things had gone over on his end.

The heavy elevator doors slid open and Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita crossed the lab to Jeremie's chair as Odd replied, "Everything's cool over here, Jeremie. All XANA did was cause a few short circuits. Nearly scared Rosa half to death with one of them, but other than that, nothing."

"Really? That was it?"

"Yeah", Odd answered.

"Huh," said Jeremie, glad he hadn't bothered to set up the Return in Time program just yet. "Well if that's all, then I guess there's no need for a Return trip." His friends shrugged their shoulders. "Well then, we'll see you back in class, Odd," Jeremie spoke into his headset. He exited the calling program and made some final endings to a couple more windows set up on the various screens. He then swung the large yellow chair around and faced his friends. "All done here," he said with a smile.

The four students turned to the elevator and stepped inside, watching the doors close on the soft, blue glow of the laboratory.


End file.
